What are the percentage of kids who get through a musical prescreening?

I hope some fellow pianists or parents of pianists can chime in, because I’m sure this varies from instrument to instrument and from program to program. Here’s a reply from the MT major forum from a few years ago that indicates that prescreen pass rates can range from 25% to 50% depending on the institution:

Broadly, though, I think most conservatory-style performance programs are looking for potential rather than perfection. These programs want open, dedicated young artists who have not “locked in” their approach to their craft, as they are looking for artists that they can train and take from “potential” to “product” (within reason…I know this is different for BM musicians who often go on to study at the MM and DMA level, which is far less common in musical theatre) in line with the artistic philosophy and training objectives of the institution.

I encourage you and your daughter to think about what “perfection” means in the context of her performance videos–I’m a working actor and I seldom submit a self-tape or do an in-person audition where I feel everything went perfect. Especially over the past 3 years where ALL of my auditions have been digital, I’ve had to rewatch a lot of my work onscreen again and again and I will ALWAYS be able to find imperfections in my work. But even if I submit a take where I think “I wish I could have done [this specific element] better,” there is always something ELSE in the video that is screaming to me “you couldn’t have done [this other element] better, though.” I think it’s important to know ourselves as artists and make sure that our performance videos are always representing ourselves REASONABLY well across the board (and of course you will have smaller elements that are perfection and other elements that are less great. It’s so rare to have EVERYTHING you know you are capable of gel at once).

To me, it sounds like your daughter’s prescreens were strong, if she has passed 4 prescreens so far. Congratulations to her and toi toi toi as she moves on to live auditions!

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